I could tell right away the Jack Hill influence in the script - random acts of cruel violence and rampant embarrassment of the women herein. Anyone who has seen anything with Jack Hill's name in the credits knows what I mean.

The most painful thing about it was that, in spite of every actor's apparent desire to try and act in a plausible movie, the direction, effects and pacing smack them down at every turn. And then there's the business of the ending where Marshall's wife is locked up by Ashland one moment and then, after Ashland is waylaid and Ashland and his kids ready themselves to leave the ship, Ashland's wife magically appears, out of the locked chamber and offering no explanation as to how she got out. Amazing.

And what kind of self-respecting cruise ship lets itself get wrecked by a Nazi ship that doesn't even move?

Painful is an overused word to describe movies like this but in the case of Death Ship, it's accurate.